Released at 24, She Went Back to Her Father’s Old Body Shop — Under the Lift Sat a Welded Trunk
Chapter 8
They returned to the body shop before dawn.
Claire opened the second box.
Inside were vehicle titles.
Hundreds of them.
Each belonged to cars that had supposedly been destroyed years earlier.
Ethan stared.
“These are stolen vehicles.”
Claire nodded.
Then she found something worse.
A list of names.
Judges.
Police officers.
Business owners.
Politicians.
People who had purchased vehicles through the network.
At the bottom was a single name.
Mason Reed.
Claire stared.
“The sheriff was involved.”
Ethan shook his head.
“Maybe.”
Claire found another document.
A payment record.
Reed had received money.
But the payment was six years old.
Before Claire’s arrest.
Ethan looked at her.
“He wasn’t protecting your family.”
“He was protecting himself.”
Claire opened the final box.
Inside was a small digital recorder.
She pressed play.
Daniel’s voice.
“I can’t do this anymore.”
A second voice answered.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Claire didn’t recognize it.
Daniel said:
“She knows.”
The second man laughed.
“Then make sure she can’t talk.”
Claire stopped the recording.
Ethan looked at her.
“Who was the other voice?”
“I don’t know.”
She played it again.
Then froze.
There was something in the background.
A radio broadcast.
A sports game.
Claire searched the date.
The broadcast had occurred on the night her father died.
The recording had been made inside the body shop.
That meant Daniel and the mysterious man had been there.
Claire listened again.
Then she heard something else.
A door closing.
Footsteps.
And her father’s voice.
“Daniel?”
The recording ended.
Claire looked at Ethan.
“My father was alive when Daniel was here.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel never told anyone.”
Ethan nodded.
Then a car stopped outside.
Sheriff Reed stepped into the shop.
He looked at Claire.
“You found the second box.”
Claire stared.
“How did you know?”
Reed lowered his head.
“Because I put it there.”
